RJ Goes to A School Friend's Birthday Party

I think we've entered a new era in RJ's world.  The era of going to birthday parties for friends from school where I have not previously met their parents.  We've gone to lots of birthday parties for his school friends before, but when we were at the Child Development Center, I always knew the parents and the other kids.

For this particular birthday party, I recognized the child, but had never had a conversation with her.  AND no one else from school showed up, so RJ and I (Daddy stayed home with Logan since the party started during nap time) didn't know ANYONE there, with the exception of RJ knowing the birthday girl.  

I was very impressed with RJ, since he made friends pretty easily and got along with them.  He even tried to settle an argument between two other boys.  One was saying that the party was a birthday party while the other was saying that it was a costume party (it was both - guests were invited to dress as their favorite Disney character).  RJ jumped in between them and said, "You're right AND you're right, it's a..." at which point he was cut off by the other little boy, who said, "NO, I'm black and he's black, YOU'RE White, dude." At this point, RJ looked a little confused (we've never labeled people according to their race before - he just knows that people come in all different colors), and went to repeat himself, but the other boy clearly wasn't getting RJ's point and started to say, "no, you and your mom are white...", at which point, I jumped in and tried to say, "He's saying RIGHT, not WHITE, so he's saying that you're correct and so is your friend."   It sort of helped, but he was still a little confused.  (And for the record, I'm pretty sure that RJ says his Rs rather than substituting the W sound, as is common in little kids.  It's possible it's my mommy ear, but his teachers are always amazed at his pronunciation and vocabulary, so...)

Anyway, it was a fun party.

RJ got to ride a sad looking painted pony (I really felt bad for the animal.  So much so I considered not letting RJ ride it, but didn't want to make a scene about it when I didn't know these people and it would've accomplished nothing.)   He did ask me why the pony was painted, but despite it being covered in pink and purple chemicals, he enjoyed the ride.

And he won pin the bow on Hello Kitty.  He got that bow directly where it belonged.  He insists he couldn't see through the blindfold though...

More pictures here.